Category: News

Our Blanc de Blancs have won two Silver medals in the International Wine & Spirit Competition 2019!

Our first medal, a silver, was for our newly-released Blanc de Blancs Reserve at the prestigious International Wine and Spirit Competition.

What the judges had to say:
“Lovely creamy, yeasty and baked-fruit notes on the nose. The palate has complex bright citrus notes, with baked apple, brioch, apricot and grapefruit characters. This has excellent minerality and is truly delicious, with a long, lingering finish.”

And another silver for our Blanc de Blancs 2011 Magnum.

What the judges had to say:
“Pale soft yellow gold with white gold streaming bubbles. Wonderful looking glass. The nose is just as inviting, oyster shell, lemon drizzle cake, white hedgerow flowers, hints of dark chocolate, roasting nuts and Pain d’écpices. Wonderful freshness and drive in the mouth, power and elegance with an extended gorgeous finish.”

Our Rosé NV has been awarded a silver medal in the 2019 Sommelier Wine Awards!

We are thrilled that our Rose NV has once again won a medal, this time a silver at the SWA – the only competition to be aimed solely at the on-trade. Judged by a panel of top, leading sommeliers and on-trade drinks buyers, the competition rewards the best wines available to restaurants, bars and hotels in the UK and beyond.

Team leader Carlos Ferreira found ‘some tropical notes on the nose along with cherry, strawberries and green apple. The palate is complex with beautiful bubbles and well-balanced acidity.’ Roberto Sanchez of Sexy Fish called for some ‘fois gras to match or some fresh crab and prawns’.

“Very English in style, cool and fresh, strawberry yoghurt on the nose, delicate and beautifully balanced.”

“An outstanding example of ESW. The wine shows a beautiful balance between fruit & acid, which makes the wine feel fresh, but not tart. Excellent complexity on the nose & palate.”

“Colour is bright, mousse is great visually. Its creamy but still has great concentration of strawberry. Very dry, but still has enough ripe fruit to lift palate. Acidity is perfectly soft and lifting.”

The Hare & Bramble, situated in Langham’s Vineyard Café, is a café that prides itself on sourcing the very best Dorset seasonal produce to create their ever changing small plates of food, sandwiches and cakes.

The ethos is to provide a relaxed, informal dining experience where clients can enjoy a coffee and conversation or indulge in several plates of food complemented by Langham’s sparkling wine. Alongside the day to day running of The Hare & Bramble we aim to provide evening experiences for our guests to enjoy throughout the year.

Whether this is a seasonal four – course dinner accompanied by a selection of canapés or Friday Fizz evenings where you can enjoy a selection of small plates and a glass of wine. The vision is simple, to create an atmosphere and food experience that is unlike any other café in Dorset. Our talented chefs &
experienced front of house team will be on hand to ensure every one is well looked after, fed and wined during their time in the café.

A near perfect 2018 growing season resulted in a large crop of very high-quality fruit across all three varieties.

Vineyard

A very cold and wet late winter period gave way to an exceptionally warm and dry spring. With such a distinct change of seasons, bud burst happened very quickly and evenly. Although temperatures dropped to near freezing on the evening of 1st May, the threat of spring frosts this year was low and the vineyard made it through this nail-biting period unscathed.

Hot and dry weather prevailed through the rest of spring and early summer, and flowering of the vines occurred under perfect conditions in mid-June. By this point grapevine phenological stages were proceeding 2-3 weeks ahead of the average and canopy growth continued at a colossal rate. Dry periods were interspersed with small amounts of rain, and combined with soil water reserves accumulated during the winter months, the vines always had a sufficient supply of water. The 1500 new vines planted in May had to be watered on a couple of occasions to ensure root development wasn’t affected.

The first signs of veraison were seen on August 7th, three weeks earlier than usual. Higher rates of precipitation and cooler temperatures in August and early September slowed down the ripening process but also resulted in bunches swelling due to increased water availability. Harvest of the Crawthorne Vineyard Pinot noir began on 27th September, a day earlier than the 2017 harvest and around two weeks earlier than an average year. Picking continued under dry and often sunny conditions for the next couple of weeks and was completed on 11th October with perfectly ripe Chardonnay.

Winery

The quantity and quality of fruit received in to the winery over the 2018 harvest was simply astonishing. In addition to the existing capacity extra barrels and two small tanks were purchased so that no fruit had to be sold. This increase in barrel capacity was also required to ensure that the proportion of wine fermented in barrel (30%) to stainless steel (70%) remained similar to previous years and that the ‘house style’ wasn’t compromised.

All of the wines this year received very little intervention, with only small sugar and sulphur dioxide additions and everything fermenting with native yeasts.

Following our recent success in the South West Vineyard Association awards, we were delighted to receive ‘Best Drinks Product’ last month at the Dorset Magazine Food & Farming Awards!

Celebrating the quality and passion behind so many Dorset businesses, the awards are designed to showcase the great and the good in Dorset, and reward the hardworking people behind them, including suppliers and producers, small farming businesses, chefs, restaurants, pubs and hoteliers.

Sponsored by Saffery Champness the Best Drinks Product category included Cerne Abbas Brewery and the Dorset Ginger Company in the line up, so our crafted terroir-driven sparkling wines – using grapes only grown on our vineyard – were in good company!

Judges were impressed with our 30 acres of vines (planted in 2009) that makes us the largest single-site vineyard in the South West, where we produce our low-intervention, sparkling wine in the traditional method from the classic varietals of Chardonnay, Pinot noir and Pinot meunier.

2018 has already proved to be a very successful year for us in terms of national awards and so we are proud to be building on that with this latest award from Dorset Magazine. We value being part of a strong and vibrant community of local food and drinks producers here in Dorset.

We were delighted to host the South West Vineyards Association (SWVA) annual awards. 95 wines from 28 producers were judged in our tasting room and the results were revealed at the SWVA Member’s Day the following day. Drum roll…

We were absolutely thrilled to have received the overall trophy for South West Wine of the Year for our Classic Cuvée Reserve Magnum 2011! In addition we won the Chairman’s cup for Best Sparkling Rosé (for the second year running) for our Rosé NV alongside a gold medal for our Blanc de Noirs 2013. All these accolades are testament to the expertise of winemaker Daniel Ham and the commitment of our small team. As first time hosts it was a privilege to have a behind-the-scenes insight into the awards and see the passion that the SWVA committee and judges share for the wines.

The SWVA is one of seven regional associations of the national body Wine GB, and this years’ competition involved artisan producers from across the breadth of the South West, from Cornwall to Herefordshire. The judges this year were wine experts Patricia Stefanowicz MW, Lindsay Oram, Richard Coulson, Jemma Mitchell and Alex Taylor.

For those interested in checking out the range of fantastic wines available across our region, the full awards are available to view on the SWVA website: Click Here

July´s Fizz and Fromage extravaganza occurred on yet another beautiful summer´s evening – we´ve been well and truly spoilt lately.

Our guests started their night with a wander through our lustrous vines with Olly, our charming Vineyard Manager, who we managed to persuade off his tractor especially! Olly shared an informative, humorous and exciting update on what´s been happening in the vineyard with all this glorious weather, whetting our appetites for 2018´s harvest. Guests then returned to the Tasting Room for a cheese-related tutored Wine Tasting and tucking into some truly wonderful Andrew James-inspired fromage treats; including mini fondues, soufflés and a stunning Yorkshire Cheese curd Dessert.It was a fabulous evening, made all the more special by the a sneaky guest appearance from the man responsible for one of favourite cheeses, Ford Farm Coastal Cheddar Head Cheesemaker, Andy Chiverton-Moore. Andy spoke about Ford Farm and some of the amazing Cheeses that are made there – thank you Andy!

Our ‘Welcome to Summer’ Fizz Friday in June was a four course seasonal menu by Summer Lodge Chef Steve Titman, with wine pairing options curated by Head Sommelier Eric.

The award-winning Grade II Listed Summer Lodge Country House Hotel is nestled in true Thomas Hardy terroir, offering an elegant rural escape – if you haven’t visited yet you must; only a short drive from Langham Wine Estate.

As always a vegetarian option was available. We received glowing feedback from our lovely guests – if you haven’t joined us for Fizz Friday yet we hope to see you soon!

“What a lovely, enjoyable evening. Superb food and service. As always the Langham wine went down very well. We’ll definitely be going back.”Amy, Broadmayne

Our next Fizz Friday is on the 6th of July is a Fizz and Fromage extravaganza, curated by our own Vineyard Café chef Andrew James. It’s a twist on a classic cheese and wine pairing, including mini fondue and soufflés with dessert and cheese from our friends at Ford Farm and Dorset Blue. Click here for details.

We won two Gold Medals in the Wine GB Awards – one each for the Classic Cuvée 2014 and the Rosé 2014.

They were among 230 English and Welsh wines judged in total and we’re proud to say we fought off stiff competition to achieve two of only 28 Gold Medals awarded overall. The judging of the national awards, formally knows as the UK Wine Awards, took place on the 14th and 15th of May at Hotel du Vin, Wimbledon, with an impressive line up of judges from the UK wine industry including Saturday Kitchen’s Susie Barrie, presenter Oz Clarke and winemaker Sue Daniels (of Marks and Spencer).

The judges’ glowing comments are testament to the dedication and passion of our small team for producing world-class sparkling wines from our estate; we couldn’t be prouder!

Langham Classic Cuvée 2014 is a blend of the three classic Champagne varieties Chardonnay (50%), Pinot noir (25%) and Pinot meunier (25%). In appearance it has a golden colour with a stream of fine bubbles. The nose has aromas of red apple and brioche giving way to a refreshing palate with luxurious mouthfeel and flavours reminiscent of honeydew melon and poached pear. An elegant acidity brings poise to the palate and provides a mouth-watering finish, and it pairs perfectly with seafood and summer salads – or drinks beautifully on its own.

Langham Rosé 2014, a beautiful salmon pink sparkling cuvée, is a blend of the Estate’s finest Pinot Noir (89%) and Chardonnay (11%). This wine has a fine stream of small bubbles with a rich nose of butter pastry, strawberry and fresh red cherry. The palate is light and refreshing with flavours reminiscent of summer fruit pudding and a complex honeyed richness on the finish. It can be happily enjoyed on its own, with lightly spiced Asian-inspired dishes or with fresh fruit desserts.

These latest awards come hot on the heels of the Gold the Classic Cuvée 2014 won in the Sommelier Wine Awards and the Gold the Langham Rosé 2014 won in March’s Independent English Wine Awards (IEWA). What a year! Thanks for your continued support, it’s people like you drinking our wines that make it all worthwhile.